Other People’s Rejection Letters

Shapiro’s collection is mesmerizing. You’d think it would be hugely depressing, but it isn’t. It’s oddly heartwarming.

Here’s what Shapiro told me:

“The experience of sitting on my living room floor and looking through hundreds of rejection letters from work, love, parents, creative pursuits, it really just shows you that this is a part of life…When you see all these people stretching, reaching above their means, it makes you in some ways hope to be rejected. Not to get too Zen or Buddhist here, but you can’t really feel success without feeling the opposite of success. If you’ve never been rejected, how great will your success feel?”

Here are a few of the 150 letters, emails and text messages that you’ll find in the book. Take note of the celebrity artist featured in the last letter:

And if you’d like to design your own rejection letter, check out the Reject-O-Matic!